STRAYDOG blog

August 17, 2012

Branding Positioning & Microsoft

Defining your brand’s position comes from the company’s identity — the starting point for a brand strategy. Companies who market their product or service without establishing their brand position are unlikely to achieve a return on investment.

Microsoft is a model example of a company with confused brand positioning. They sought the help of their marketing and design team instead of looking at the bigger picture — their brand.

Businesses investing in their brand must seek the help of branding experts vs. marketing or design experts. Branding is so much more than design, it’s about defining the DNA of your organization from the inside out; its personality, vision, mission, values, tone-of-voice and style. A well constructed brand identity and strategy will establish the brands position and define the landscape for media channels and marketing, both traditional and digital.

The right best position for your brand is one that is true to your organization and one that is perceived as the only solution to the target audience’s problem. This can establish the value of the brand and if it can be charged at a premium. Therefore, your brand is what your customers understand your brand as, the products or services they associate with your company and what they say.

It is not uncommon for companies think their brand and their products or services stand for something totally different than what a customer thinks. It’s also common for companies to spend too much time trying to be something they’re not.

The challenge for your brand is to have your customers know your brand and what it stands for. As microsoft continually struggles with defining their brand, they’re denoted as boring, confused and lacking style. Microsoft needs to spend time defining and embracing their true brand story, brand position, brand values and personality.

Afterall, if you don’t define your brand, your competitors and audience will happily do it for you.